Fig. 1

Flowchart representing the study workflow strategy. Phase 1: concept Profile Analysis (CPA) of human genes associated with each concept, “Sjögren’s syndrome” (SS), “systemic lupus erythematosus” (SLE), and “rheumatoid arthritis” (RA), and finding common genes between SS-SLE and SS-RA. Phase 2: comparison of common genes from phase 1 with peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) datasets for each disease, SS, SLE, and RA. The criteria for comparison per disease were female subjects only, and a gene expression cutoff of ≥ +1.5 or ≤ -1.5 fold changes (FC). Phase 3: comparison of gene expression of selected common genes from the PBMC and disease site (e.g., salivary gland for SS) datasets to identify differentially expressed (DE) genes. Phase 4: total 76 DE genes were identified from salivary gland datasets from patients with SS and used for gene enrichment and functional analysis to generate molecular interaction network 1. MSG minor salivary gland, LSG labial salivary gland, PG parotid gland, SY synovial biopsy, SY fib. synovial fibroblast